What is sustainability in business?

Sustainability in business refers to a company’s strategy and effort to reduce negative environmental impact from its business operation. An organization’s effort into sustainability is often measured by the ESG metric or environment, social and governance. According to Gartner the rising importance of ESG is driven by a wide range of stakeholders, from investors through to communities, NGOs and employees. Therefore, CEO and senior business executives are highlighting the importance of ESG, which is rising quickly in their priority. However, developing an ESG strategy is a big step for many organizations. Many organizations fail to bridge its strategy with its execution. At KYMC we work with our customers to achieve their ESG goals, here is what we recommend you to start with:

Steps to initiate your ESG strategy.

1.      Identify your ESG business outcomes that you are aiming to drive. Put down quantitative metrics in place of what success will look like.

Example:

·       To reduce energy consumption in the printing press operation by 20%

·       To reduce VOC emissions by 50%

·       To reduce operator hazards to 0 incident in the next year

·       To reduce waste from the printing and coating operation

2.      Identify the business capabilities you will need to achieve the quantitative metric.

Example:

·       To recycle more energy from the drying process

·       To adopt an ink with less solvent

·       To install alert systems to notify unusual machine performance or irregular environmental measurements.

·       To improve press and operation efficiency

3.      Conduct a gap analysis of where you are. To identify the people, business process, technology and information that are needed to close the gap.

Example:

·       To install an energy recycling system on the printing press

·       To switch over from solvent based ink over to water-based ink. To switch from rotogravure printing process over to the flexographic printing process.

·       To install monitors to monitor the LEL (lower explosive limit) level in the atmosphere to prevent fire hazards. To carry out regular machine maintenance to prevent malfunctions.

·       To integrate the printing function and coating function into one machine to improve efficiency and to reduce waste production during process change.

According to IBM, sustainability in business should be one of the core strategies of every business due to both ethical and financial reasons.

·       71% of employees and employment seekers say that environmentally sustainable companies are more attractive to them.

·       80% of consumers indicate sustainability is important to them.

·       Government, investors, and customers are demanding enterprises to be accountable for their actions towards climate change.

·       Many of the top economic regions and countries are developing requirements around environmental impact during imports.

·       ESG have become an investment criterion for investors.

As we have proven the importance of sustainability in business. Now it’s time to get to it. When planning out your sustainability strategy, it’s a balance between short term cost and long-term cost. Developing a sustainable business often requires upfront investment in the short term. However, it will pay off in the long term. Promote your sustainability strategy to the market. Don’t keep quiet. Co-create a sustainable business with your supply chain partners to build an eco system that continues to improve. KYMC can have supported many companies in their ESG roadmap, contact our sales to discuss more about your ESG goals.